About

I currently work as an independent mobile and web app contractor, doing random web, iOS, Android and other related technology projects on the side. I am also currently working for Universal Mind as a Sr. Consultant, being a part of the most stunning RIA’s and mobile applications developed in modern time (this being my personal opinion, but most likely true).

I was a Senior Software Engineer at Ticketmaster‘s research and development group. I worked at Ticketmaster for 7.5 years and as a technical support rep before TM – in addition to forming a few tech companies (rich internet apps, SMS, etc) and writing custom software for the US Government.

2 Responses to “About”

I am a software developer and currently develop a kiosk application using C++. We are thinking about migrating our application to a different format and I was looking at using Adobe Flex. Before I bring this idea to my manager, I was trying to figure out what licenses we would need for the kiosk. I was thinking we would need the Adobe Flash Player on the kiosk, but according to their EULA, it is not allowed. So, I looked at Adobe AIR, and it says the same thing. Is there something I am missing? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

** The below contains personal feelings about legal issues related to the Flash Player. I am not an attorney, so please take my opinions as just that, opinions. **

Hi Jennifer-

I’m not quite sure what your implementation of a kiosk is, but most likely it’s using a PC of some sort. The EULA restricts against using non-PC hardware, on an embedded device or device version of an OS. The kiosks I have worked on in the past have all been touchscreens attached to an actual PC tucked away somewhere, running “normal” Windows or Mac OS’s. You would most likely want to use a PC anyways, as the graphics and processing power needed to do some cool stuff in Flash just wouldn’t like right on an embedded system of some sort. Also, the list of items they show are examples, and if you go by the letter of their examples, you could never use the player – wouldn’t a PC be considered an “internet-connected device”? Further, they are trying to get Flash Player on to mobile, and they have been successful with Nokia and working (last I checked) to get on Android (we won’t talk about iPhone). So a custom EULA isn’t out of the question either. I feel the “heart” of their restrictions comes down to them not wanting anyone to port the Flash Player runtime to an unsupported OS or platform.

The crappy part is that Adobe’s legal team doesn’t consult on the actual limitations of their EULA. While I’m not an attorney, I would assume Adobe would rather continue to push its products and services out, gain a wider adoption rate, and say “look what you can do with Flash”; instead of crushing every application that might garner some attention. Here is a search on Adobe.com that references ‘kiosk’ – 4860 results… So while saying “everyone else does it” might not work out so well when trying to convince higher-up’s of the legal details, I’d specify that you’re using a PC, not an embedded device; and of all things, a supported OS.

Conversely, if you were using a Kiosk with an embedded system, I would think you would need a license for FP Lite or a custom EULA from their legal team. But if you’re going to leverage another companies kiosk hardware or embedded system, that licensing would be their responsibility. Again, this isn’t legal advice, just how I’d interpret it. I couldn’t imagine doing half of the graphics they have without Flash anyways, so I’d assume for every 1 you hear about, there are a 1000 doing it that nobody knows about.

All this legal stuff aside, the Flash player offers a “silent” installer to push updated player versions to PC’s (this might be restricted to organizations, you would have to check for “silent flash player install”). However the last time I looked, AIR does not have such a thing. Also, if you release an update to your Kiosk AIR application, it can’t be a “silent” upgrade. It would require someone physically (or remotely) at the machine to click the “I Agree” and other install dialog buttons with a mouse (or touchscreen) – unless you just changed the referenced SWF located on a server somewhere.

Obviously the decision is up to your company, your legal team and their interpretation of their EULA. That’s just my ranting rambling $.02…